The present invention relates to selector switches for appliances such as washing machines, and in particular to a selector switch having the number of selector positions determined by a cutout in the panel to which it is mounted.
Appliance manufacturers often want to offer different models of a given appliance for different market segments. For example, a manufacturer may offer a high-end washing machine with eight different water level settings, a mid-range washing machine with six different water level settings, and a low-end washing machine with three different water level settings.
Each water level setting may be selected by moving a selector switch to a different position. In this case, the three models described above would require three different switches, an eight-position, a six-position and a three-position switch. Designing, manufacturing and stocking three different switches significantly increases the cost of manufacture of the machines.
It is generally known to produce rotary switches having removable internal stops that can control the range of rotation of the switch and thus the number of switch positions. While this reduces the number of switches that must be manufactured, such switches require a separate reconfiguration step, and as a practical matter, must be preconfigured and then separately stocked so as to be ready for installation and yet not to be placed into the wrong appliance.
Ideally, a method could be found for providing multiple switches for multiple models of an appliance without increasing manufacturing complexity or requiring stocking of separate configurations or time consuming additional manufacturing steps.